I Have Come to do Your Will [Advent; Week 3]

Having taken the time to look at the PROBLEM, our sin, in Psalm 5 on the first Sunday of Advent and then at the PLAN, the Gospel, in Psalm 8 on the second Sunday, This week we see the PERSON who fulfilled that PLAN and solved the PROBLEM in our study of Psalm 40.

That PERSON of course is Jesus Christ. King David writes 1,000 years before the coming of Christ into the world a beautiful description of His ministry. He begins with praise for deliverance from the “horrible pit” and the “miry clay.”

Psalms 40:2-3 He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, Out of the miry clay, And set my feet upon a rock, And established my steps. 3 He has put a new song in my mouth– Praise to our God; Many will see it and fear, And will trust in the LORD.

This is not a particular event in the life of David that he is speaking of, rather the condition of sin that we all face. This is evident by what David speaks of next.

Psalms 40:6-8 Sacrifice and offering You did not desire; My ears You have opened. Burnt offering and sin offering You did not require. 7 Then I said, “Behold, I come; In the scroll of the book it is written of me. 8 I delight to do Your will, O my God, And Your law is within my heart.”

Sin is the problem, but apparently, the bloody sacrifices of the Old Testament Ceremonial Law are not the solution. David begins to speak in what would be rather cryptic terms as he proceeds through this Psalm. God has “Opened his ears” to the realization that those sacrifices are not God’s ultimate plan. But then he speaks as though the pentateuch had prophesied his reign and that it would bring about the demise of those sacrifices. And so, David begins to speak of the PERSON who would bring about the PROMISE of God to deal with the PROBLEM of sin. Though it is veiled in the prophetic prayer of the Psalms as we read it in the Old Testament it is announced clearly in the New Testament.

Hebrews 10:7-10 THEN I SAID, ‘BEHOLD, I HAVE COME– IN THE VOLUME OF THE BOOK IT IS WRITTEN OF ME– TO DO YOUR WILL, O GOD.’ ” 8 Previously saying, “SACRIFICE AND OFFERING, BURNT OFFERINGS, AND OFFERINGS FOR SIN YOU DID NOT DESIRE, NOR HAD PLEASURE IN THEM” (which are offered according to the law), 9 then He said, “BEHOLD, I HAVE COME TO DO YOUR WILL, O GOD.” He takes away the first that He may establish the second. 10 By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

This is the One of whom David wrote. The One who came into the world to do the will of the Father. (John 6:38-40) The One who came to save His people from their sins. Not with the blood of bulls and goats, but with the shedding of His own precious blood, once and for all! Matthew 1:21 And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins.”

And so He was born. And so He lived and He died for this very purpose. To accomplish the PLAN of God for the PROBLEM of Sin in the PERSON of Jesus Christ. As we look to the manger this year, as we consider the wise men and their gifts, the star that led them to the Christ Child, as we take on the cultural celebration that surrounds this event, let us keep in mind that all of it was the Work of God to redeem of from the Horrible Pit and the Miry Clay of Sin.

Psalms 40:16-17 Let all those who seek You rejoice and be glad in You; Let such as love Your salvation say continually, “The LORD be magnified!” 17 But I am poor and needy; Yet the LORD thinks upon me. You are my help and my deliverer; Do not delay, O my God.

Let us who love the Lord’s Salvation use this season to magnify the Lord for His goodness towards us. Let us proclaim His great mercy to the world around us and remember that His humiliation as an Infant born in such destitute circumstances was only the beginning of woes for Him.

2 Corinthians 8:9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.